1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a testing and supporting apparatus, and in particular to an electronic element testing and supporting apparatus for supporting and testing electronic elements such as chip packages.
2. Description of Related Art
After an integrated circuit chip is packed as an IC package, a testing and supporting apparatus will be used to test a large number of IC packages, thereby testing the reliability of the IC packages in different actual environments.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional testing and supporting apparatus for testing IC packages, which includes a circuit board 11, an outer frame 12, an inner frame 13 and a plate 14. The front surface is electrically provided with a plurality of testing and supporting bases (not shown) on which the IC packages can be disposed. The outer frame 12 is locked to the back surface of the circuit board 11 via screws 151. The inner frame 13 is also locked into the outer frame 12 via screws 152. The plate 14 is provided with a plurality of bores 141 to correspond to the positions of the testing and supporting bases and electronic components (not shown, such as resistors and capacitors) provided at the back surface of the circuit board 11, so that the testing and supporting bases and the electronic components can be tested whether they may suffer damage on the back surface of the circuit board 11 after a long period of use. In addition, an effect of guiding heat flow can be provided for an environmental test chamber. Further, the plate 14 is locked onto the outer frame 12 via screws 153.
A robot arm is often used to pull the testing and supporting apparatus on an IC package arrangement table. Then, the robot arm is used to locate a plurality of IC packages on the corresponding testing and supporting bases. At this time, the robot arm applies a pressing force on the circuit board. In order to prevent the circuit board from being bent or suffering damage due to its insufficient strength, the back surface of the circuit board is provided with the outer frame, the inner frame and the plate to increase the strength of the circuit board.
However, the pressing force causes the testing and supporting apparatus to vibrate, which causes loosening of the screws in the plate and/or the inner frame. As a result, the screws of the plate and/or the inner frame may protrude from their holes and cause jamming of the testing and supporting apparatus, so that the testing and supporting apparatus cannot be smoothly drawn out by the robot arm. In this case, not all of the testing and supporting apparatuses can be arranged orderly and put in an environment testing chamber to evaluate the reliability of environment test. Besides, the protruding screws may collide with other parts and thus cause damage to those parts. Also, the screws of the plate may fall off, which causes the plate to fall off accordingly.
Furthermore, the screws of the plate and inner frame may expand or shrink due to the temperature of the environment test chamber, so that the screws may become loose or fall off, which may cause the electronic components or IC packages on the testing and supporting apparatus to suffer damage.
In the following, as the testing and supporting apparatus or the electronic components have to be exchanged, a repairman has to use a screw driver to unscrew the screws of the plate gradually, thereby detaching the plate and the damaged testing and supporting bases or electronic components. This procedure is time consuming, and it is impossible to reduce the time necessary for repair.
Consequently, because of the above technical defects, the inventor keeps on carving unflaggingly through wholehearted experience and research to develop the present invention, which can effectively improve the defects described above.